


Secrets

by 127s



Series: resonance prompts [6]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Chenle needs a hug, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, kinda barely edited, mentioned dotae, side markhyuck, side nomin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27405025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/127s/pseuds/127s
Summary: Nobody needed to know that he didn't have a mark, nor a soulmate.
Relationships: Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Series: resonance prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993867
Comments: 9
Kudos: 91





	Secrets

Some secrets are okay, Chenle had decided.

If it doesn't involve anyone but himself, why does it matter so much?

Sometimes people are just better off not knowing.

So, when his eighteenth birthday came, and after twenty minutes of searching his skin for anything, he'd found nothing at all, he decided to keep it a secret.

Nobody needed to know that he didn't have a mark, nor a soulmate.

He remembered when his friends got theirs. For the most part, it was the usual, 'hello', 'nice to meet you' or 'excuse me' or something along the lines of that. For Mark, it was quite literally, 'my name is Donghyuck', which Chenle had found beyond amusing.

But he didn't have anything.

He didn't get what it meant, never had heard of someone just not having the mark of their soulmate's first words to them, never had heard of someone not having a soulmate.

He decided to keep it a secret. When people asked, especially a particularly interested Renjun, Donghyuck and Jaemin, the moment Chenle had came to school that morning, —before they'd even said happy birthday, as a matter of fact— he just said with a casualness, "It says hey." 

He left it at that.

He'd wanted to believe it didn't bother him, in the days, then weeks, then months after, as he watched more and more people get their marks, realise their soulmates.

But it did. 

He'd never have what everyone else had, and it was becoming a stupid insecurity of his. So much so that he'd find himself tense whenever Mark or Donghyuck were rambling about one another, or when Doyoung was tutoring him and went on a tangent about something that Taeyong had said once, and how it reminded him of his mark, and how they'd come to the conclusion they were each other's soulmates. It felt like everyone but him had that sureness.

"You'll find them one day," Sungchan had reassured Chenle one day, when he was looking particularly angrily down at his leftover pizza, while Jaemin stood in the corner of the room, smiling at whatever it was his soulmate, Jeno, was talking about on the other end of the phone. Chenle had never met him, he went to a different school, but Jaemin spoke about him enough for the youngest of the group to be able to recite his life story to anyone who asked.

"Sure." Chenle answered, tone more bitter than he'd intended. 

An unconvinced Sungchan sighed in his direction. "Look, I know it's hard when you get something so vague and you know, normal, but I promise it'll be worth it when you do find—"

"Alright, I get it!" Chenle snapped, dropping the half of the pizza slice he'd spent the last fifteen minutes picking at. "I'm going home."

He decided he hated secrets.

On top of the constant, nagging reminder that he was just _different,_ the only one without a soulmate, there was the dread of knowing he's constantly lying. To his friends, his family even. 

He hated every moment of it, but it wasn't like he could suddenly go back on the lie. What would people even think of him?

"Did you hear that Johnny found his soulmate? I knew he would, he said it was something like—"

Chenle exhaled, flicking through several notebooks and textbooks in search of a particular set for his next few classes, paying no attention to the rambling Renjun at the locker beside him. It was all about the same thing, anyway.

"—And he said he realised in like, the middle of the night."

"Cool." Chenle answered, finally finding the books he needed and bringing the locker door to a shut, holding the small stack of books at his side.

He waited only a moment for Renjun to finish doing the same before he began to move down the hallway, in a rush to get to class for the sole reason of not having to hear about soulmates this, soulmates that.

Renjun began to talk again, this time about a show he was watching, and Chenle's gaze had fallen to the floor, following the habitual steps to the particular class. It was when he turned the corner that he ran right into someone, sending a mess of books and papers in every direction. 

The collision was abrupt, and Chenle realised it was into someone taller than someone with himself. "Oh, sorry. Wasn't looking." He apologised, leaning down to sort the mess of books he'd created. 

He'd expected some sort of verbal reply, but when there was nothing, he looked up, gaze finding the other he'd ran into. He didn't recognise him, the student assumably new, tall, and pretty, Chenle decided. But it wasn't the features of the other he was looking at, and instead his expression. Not surprise, not offence, but something that Chenle could closest describe as shock. Frozen.

Had he really collided with him that hard? He was sure it wasn't that bad, barely enough to draw Renjun out of his focused, conversational state to realise Chenle was no longer walking with him.

Chenle cleared his throat as he finished sorting the books, standing straight. "Uh, yeah. Sorry again." He awkwardly repeated, lingering in the position for a moment before beginning to move away, walking down the hall with a following Renjun after him a moment later.

"Who was that?" Chenle questioned, glancing over his shoulder in the direction the other was. "I haven't seen him before."

"Oh, he's new. Sungchan had a class with him this morning, mentioned him. Jisung, I think his name was," Renjun hummed, moving on like nothing had happened. "He's mute."

"Mute?" Chenle repeated, like he didn't know what the word meant.

"Yeah. Shame you have a mark. He's cute. Anyway—"

**Author's Note:**

> i don't really like how i wrote this :,( but i might add a chapter to it when i'm finished with the prompt challenge!! i'm not sure :0


End file.
